eet ingot © ms : ‘ : Sig BS oe, ) tua Oe Ale ee, ere. : ae : 
by & The Monthly. Message, No. 40, Price 20c. _ 
i SF a? JAN: 15,4892. / Claes” 


PER YEAR, 25 CENTS. 


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PUBLISHED FOR 
; THE'UNITED SOCIETY OF .. . 
+ se . | : - 3. . CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR, 
§. Entered at the Boston Post Office as Second Class Matter. 50 BROMFIELD ST., BOSTON, MASS,, 
1 hat Py) pn 5 ae _. BY. L. HaAsTINGs. | 


—— 


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MISS M. W. LEITCH AND CEYLONESE GIRLS. 


A GREAT OPPORTUNITY. 


AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE 


TENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE 


OF THE 


Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor. 


By MARGARET W. LEITCH. 


WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 


REY. ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D.D., PHILADELPHIA, PA. 


PRICE 20 CENTS. 


PUBLISHED BY 
THE UNITED SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR, 
50 BROMFIELD STREET, BOSTON, MASs. 


COPYRIGHT 1891, 
BY 
UNITED SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 


‘* During the latter part of these eighteen centuries it has been 
within the power of those who had the truth, having means enough, 
knowledge enough, opportunity enough, to have evangelized the world 
twenty times over.” — Zar/ of Shaftesbury. 


‘It is my deep conviction, and I say it again and again, that if the 
church of Christ were what she ought to be, twenty years would not 
pass till the story of the cross should be uttered in the ears of every 
living man.”— The dying message of the venerable missionary, 
Simeon H. Calhoun. 


‘* The measure of our ability is the measure of our responsibility.” 


Pee 


AN OPEN LETTER 


TO 


Nips Creo lORE TARIES, 


Gn Open Letter 
CoV.0.8.C.&. Secretaries. 


Dees 5; 1891. 
Dear Friend :— 

We are sending, with our kind regards to you 
and to each of the 16,000 Young People’s Societies of 
Christian Endeavor throughout the country, one copy of 
this little book, entitled ‘‘ A Great Opportunity,” in the 
hope that the attention of the young people may be 
more and more awakened to the crying needs of unevan- 
gelized lands, and that the splendid activities of these 
societies may be increasingly directed into missionary 
channels, 

Various Endeavor societies in different parts of the 
country are now supporting a missionary in some 
heathen land through their own denominational board. 
Could not your society do as much? Will you not 


bring the appeal contained in this booklet before your 


An Open Letter 


society at one of its forthcoming meetings, and ask 
your members seriously and prayerfully whether they 
might not do much more than they are now doing 
toward the evangelization of the world in this 
generation ? 

Might it not promote greater missionary activity in 
your society, church and community if you could secure 
a wide distribution of this booklet? Many might be 
willing to order it for use as a Christmas gift. The 
price is 20 cents a copy, but the United Society of 
Christian Endeavor, 50 Bromfield St., Boston, Mass., 
will supply it at wholesale for $1.80 a dozen. 

And we would suggest that it might prove helpful to 
Young People’s societies throughout the country if you 
would write to the editor of the ‘Golden Rule,” 50 
Bromfield St., Boston, Mass., telling what your society 
1s doing to awaken an intelligent interest in the cause of 
foreign missions among its own members, and what 
help it is giving to the work abroad. 

We are desirous to secure a canvasser in your vicinity 
for our missionary volume ‘‘ Seven Years in Ceylon.” It 
contains more than one hundred illustrations. Twenty 
thousand copies have already been called for. We append 
testimonials. The regular price is 75 cents a copy, but 
we will deliver them to canvassers for 50 cents a copy, 


thus allowing canvassers 25 cents clear profit on every 


To Y. PS oC... Secretaries. 


copy sold. If you cansecure a canvasser for us, we will 
send a copy without charge, to belong to the canvasser, 
when five or more copies have been ordered. As soon 
as canvassers have secured orders for ten or more 
copies, they should write to us to the address given 
below, and 
the books will 
be sent to the 


canvassers at 
once by’ex- 
press. These 
books should 
be delivered 
immediately 
on their ar- 
niwats ya nd 


50 cents for 


each sent to 
us by registered letter, Post-Office order, or bank 


check on Boston or New York, or by express within 
ten days from the time that the books have been 
received. 

In this way you will not only be helping to distribute 
missionary literature at home, but you will also be 
helping on the cause of Christ in Ceylon, as the entire 


net proceeds which we receive from the sale of this book 


An Open Letter. 


will be applied by us to endow Jafina College in Ceylon, 


an undenominational institution for the training of 


native Christian workers. 
Yours very truly, 
MARY and MARGARET W. LEITCH, 
Care of Mr. H. L. HASTINGS, 
47 Cornhill, Boston, Mass. 


Deven y Cars 1) Ceylon. ¥ ¥ $ 


PRESS NOTICES. 


This isa charming book—charming in its descriptions and 
narratives, charming in its letter-press and its illustrations, 
charming in the grace and vividness of its accounts of life in 
Ceylon, and above all charming in the consecrated spirit 
that animates every page.—‘‘ Golden Rule,’’ representative 
Vee. 8. ed. Boston, . 


To begin to read it is to be held in bonds; to have read it 
through is to feel more than ever a debtor to the heathen, to 
send them the light from heaven. Lovers of foreign missions, 
here is a treat for you.—C. H. Spurgeon in ‘‘ Sword and 


Trowel,’’ London. 


This book will make a beautiful Christmas gift. It delights 
all readers from seven to seventy. —‘‘ The Christian,’’ Boston. 


It is illustrated from photographs, and gives by far the best 
idea of the look of things over yonder of any book I have ever 
seen. It is a delightful book from which to read in any 
woman’s missionary citcle.— Miss Frances E. Willard, Pres. 
Nee Gao Us 


This book will be a valuable contribution to missionary 
literature.—‘‘ The Missionary Review of the World,’’ New 
York. 


A capital book for its purpose is this, helped on and out by 
its numerous spirited illustrations on every page. The story 
moves right on and is full of meat.—‘‘The Independent,’’ 
New York. 

Sunday-school teachers seeking anecdotes and material gen- 
erally for interesting their classes in mission-work will find it 
a perfect treasure.— ‘‘ Record,"’ Great Britain. 


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INTRODUCTION. 


BY REV. ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D.D. 


By the cross of the Nazarene, the church is to 
conquer. Missions represent, not a human device, 
but a divine enterprise. The thought of missions 
was a divine idea, and the plan a divine scheme; 
the work is a co-labor with God; the field is a 
divine sphere; the spirit of missions is a divine 
inspiration and the fruit of missions is adivine seal, 
an ‘ everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.” 

There are some watchwords which, as_ with 
trumpet tongue, should peal out all along the lines 
of the church. Our great motto should be, “ The 
world for Christ and Christ for the world in this 
our generation.” The fulness of the times has 
come. The cup of God’s preparation overflows. 


The open door of the ages is before us. The whole 


6 Introduction. 


world invites and challenges occupation. Facilities 
a thousand-fold multiplied match the thousand-fold 
opportunities. If it is the open door of the ages, 
it is also the crisis of the ages. Some one will 
enter these open doors. If an inactive, indifferent 
church delays, the arch-adversary is always on the 
alert. Satan never yet lost zs opportunity. He 
was in the garden of Eden as soon as man was. He 
not only occupies but preoccupies ; with sleepless 
vigilance he watches, while even disciples sleep. 
His missionaries are everywhere; his synagogues 
and seats throng the great centres of population 
and plant their subtle influences through the hills 
and valleys; his pioneers go before the boldest and 
bravest who pierce the unknown lands; he sets up 
his printing-presses long before the Christian litera- 
ture scatters its healing leaves. Christ is waiting 
for His coronation, and we should help to hasten it. 

The Kremlin, that island in a sea of domes, is 
the sanctuary of Russia. But in all this maze of 
temples, towers, ramparts and palaces, nothing 
impresses one more than that singular Treasury 


_ where are seen the many crowns worn by the rulers 


=~] 


Introduction. 


who swayed their sceptres over the kingdoms of 
Poland, the Crimea, and Kasan, before they were 
absorbed in the ever-encroaching gulf of Russian 
conquest. 

The structure of the future has its throne room ; 
there lie the crowns of empire, waiting for Him to 
whom by right they all belong. And when He 
shall return to mount His throne, these crowns 
shall be all laid at His feet. He waits for the 
erateful suffrages of a redeemed people, brought 
out of every nation, before He assumes His right- 
ful dominion. What can we do to hasten that 
consummation ? 

The appeal of this little book is to the young men 
and young women of the churches. Some of us 
have passed middle life and our sun is declining ; 
with others of us the sunset hour already reddens 
the horizon. With you, my young friends, the dawn 
has yet to climb to its noontide. History is dense 
with its events. Every year, every day, every hour, 
is the prolific parent of opportunities that might 
make angels rejoice and responsibilities that might 


make even angels tremble. 


Introduction. 


GoD IS MOVING ON. 


HIs MARCH IS SWIFT, AND OUR TIME IS SHORT. 


No SUCH AGE HAS EVER BEFORE SHONE ON THIS 
PLANET. 


No SUCH DOORS EVER BEFORE OPENED TO HIs 
CHURCH. 


WHO WILL FALL INTO LINE WITH GOD, 
JOIN IN HIS MAJESTIC MARCH, 


AND IN THE SURE ADVANCE OF HIS PLAN 
REACH THE GOLDEN FRUITION OF THE AGES? 


PHILADELPHIA, PA., Oct. 10, 1891. 


2 


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Q Great Opportunity. 


**TIf God will show me anything that I can do for the Evangelization 
of the world that I have not already done, by His grace / will do it at 


ounce.” 


AM speaking this afternoon to a great army 
of young men and women who have signed 
the following pledge: “Trusting in the 

Lord Jesus Christ for strength, I promise Him that 
I will strive to do whatever He would like to have me 
do.” Dear Christian Endeavorers, are you willing 
to go anywhere that Jesus Christ would like to have 
you go, and to do any work that He would like to 
have you do? If the Lord Jesus were to stand by 
your supper table tonight, as He stood once by the 
side of His disciples in Jerusalem, and if He were to 
say to you as He said to them, “As the Father hath 
sent me, even so send I you,” what would you say 


10 A Great Opportunity. 


to Him? Could you look up in His dear face and 
say, ‘“‘ Lord Jesus, I do desire to be in this world as 
Thou wast in the world. I do desire to live the 
Christ-life in this world. Make me more like Thy- 
self.” If the Lord Jesus were to speak to us, would 
He not say, “ Lovest thou me? Feed my sheep.” 
‘And other sheep I have, which are not of this 
fold; them also I must bring and they shall hear 
my voice ; and there shall be one fold and one 
shepherd.” Your Jesus has some poor, lost, wan- 
dering sheep in India, in China, in Africa, on the 
dark mountains of heathenism. They have never 
heard of the Good Shepherd ; they have never heard 
of the heavenly fold. If you love Christ, show how 
much you love Him by the way in which you strive 
to keep His commandments, by the way in which 
you go out after these lost ones until you find them. 

Do you realize that there are in the world today a 
thousand millions of heathen and Mohammedans? 
Only a fourth of the human race have the gospel; 
three fourths are without the gospel, and two out of 
every three people in the world today have never 
heard the gospel. Here we are in this comfortable 
and beautiful hall, singing and talking about the 
gospel, and rejoicing in the gospel; but ought we 


A Great Opportunity. ii 


not to make more earnest efforts to give the gospel 
to those who are without it? 

Do the heathen need the gospel? I wish I could 
picture to you how much they need it, how great is 
their ignorance, how deep is their darkness. One 
day when I was in Ceylon, walking through one of 
the villages, I found a poor mother in her home, 
lying flat on the ground, beating her face in the 
dust, and weeping and wailing most piteously. She 
had lost her only child. It was all she had in the 
world, all she had to care for and to love, for the 
human heart is just the same all the world over, 
and mothers love their children. This child had 
been taken away by death, and she had no hope of 
ever seeing it again, no hope of ever taking it in her 
arms again and knowing it as her child; and her 
heart was breaking. 

I see in this audience many mothers. Perhaps 
there may be some mother here who has lost a little 
child. What did you do in that sad hour? You 
went into your closet; you looked up into the face 
of your Christ; you believed that He had taken 
your little one to His home in heaven, that He 
was caring for it tenderly, better than you could 
care for it, that it was safe and happy with Him, 
and that you would see it again by and by; 


12 A Great Opportunity. 


and your heart was comforted. Is it not so? Re- 
member, there are other human hearts that need 
the same comfort that comforted you in your hours 
of great sorrow. Remember, the mothers in heathen 
lands need to know about the Lord Jesus Christ as 
much as you do. Our Lord Jesus came “to bind 
up the broken-hearted, to comfort all that mourn; ”’ 
but there are millions of mourners in heathen lands 
who have never heard of Jesus Christ. 

O friends, what is it that makes life worth living 
to you? Is it that you have houses and lands and 
money inthe bank? Are these the things that are 
precious to you? No; it is that you have heard 
of God, that He loves you, and that Jesus Christ is 
your Saviour and friend; it is that you have a 
glorious hope of an immortality with Christ 
beyond the grave. If these are the things that 
are precious to you, oh, then, make haste to give 
this precious gospel of redemption and of hope 
to the sinning and sorrowing millions in heathen 
lands who are without it. 

What is the Christian church doing at the present 
time to give the gospel to the heathen? Out of 
every 5,000 church members in Christian lands only 
one goes as a missionary to the heathen. What is 


the Christian church giving to send the gospel to 


A Great Opportunity. 18 


—o 


the heathen? The average giving of Christians in 
Christian lands to send the gospel to the millions 
in heathen lands is something like five cents a 
month per church member. Is this the measure of 
our love for Christ? The measure of our obedience 
is the true measure of our love to Him. It is not 
what we say or sing, but what we do that shows 
whether we love Christ or not. 

Dr. Duff, that great missionary hero, used to say, 
“The Christian church is just playing at missions ;” 
and it may be that we are only playing at Christian- 
ity. Some one has said that the evangelization of 
the world ought to be the great work of the church, 
and not merely a small branch of the church’s work; 
and if it is true that it ought to be the great work of 
the church, then it ought to be the great work of 
every member of the church, and it ought to be 
your great work and mine. 

Think of what might be done if people were 
only in earnest. Look at what the Moravians 
are doing,—a poor, humble, simple people. Do 
they send only one missionary out of every 5,000 
of their church membership? No; they send to 
the foreign field one out of seventy. Do they 
give only five cents a month per church member 
to the foreign missionary work? No; they give 


14 A Great Opportunity. 


$1.25 a month, or $15 a year, on the average, 
per church member. They send to the foreign 
field five missionaries for every minister at home. 
They say that their church exists for the pur- 
pose of giving the gospel to the world. And 
I want to ask you, For what do your churches 
exist? For what does the Y. P. S. C. E. exist? 
For what do you and I live? The Christian has 
only one business in the world,—to promote the 
coming of Christ’s kingdom. That is our great 
work in the world. We have been redeemed, 
redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, redeemed 
from the love of self, and the service of self, to the 
glorious service of our Lord Jesus Christ. Would 
that we might realize this, our “high calling,” and 
go forth to the great work of our lives. St. Paul 
said a beautiful thing in the fourteenth verse of the 
sixth chapter of Galatians: ‘God forbid that I 
should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, by whom the world }s crucified unto me, and 
I unto the world.” I wish we might all say 
that,— that the world is crucified unto us and that 
we are dead to the world, dead to its honors, its 
pleasures, its emoluments; that its praise cannot 
allure us and its blame cannot terrify us,— dead to 


the world, but alive forevermore unto Jesus Christ, 


A Great Opportunity. 15 


alive to every cause that is near to His heart, alive 
to the promotion of His kingdom. If it were so 
with each one of us, then I am sure that a great 
number from this large audience would rise up and 
follow the Lord Jesus Christ to give the gospel to 
the millions and millions of our brothers and sisters 
in heathen lands who are without it. 

If you would like to know of the work of one 
missionary in the foreign field, let me tell you the 
story of Miss Agnew. She was born in New York; 
and when a little girl, eight years of age, studying 
in a day school in New York City, her teacher 
taught her a lesson in Geography and pointed out 
the heathen and Christian lands. That little girl, 
then and there, decided that if she grew up she 
would be a missionary and go and tell the heathen 
about Jesus. She never forgot that resolve; and 
in due time, when the way was open, she went to 
Ceylon. She lived in Ceylon forty-three unbroken 
years. She had good health and strength, and she 
loved her work. During forty-one years she was 
the lady principal of the Oodooville girls’ boarding- 
school. She taught, altogether, a thousand girls in 
that school. She taught the children, and in some 
instances the grandchildren, of her first pupils in the 
school. All the people loved her, and because her 


16 A Great Opportunity. 


__— 


pupils all called her “mother,” the people of the 
district poetically called her “the mother of a 
thousand daughters.” 

She was very happy in her work, and God 
gave her His presence and His blessing. During 
those forty-one years six hundred girls from that 
school gave their hearts to Jesus Christ and 
publicly confessed him as their Saviour and Lord. 
Six hundred girls went out from that school to 
shine as lights in their homes and villages. They 
are now the wives of pastors and catechists, 
colporteurs and teachers, doctors, lawyers, mer- 
chants, and farmers. Some of them are the wives 
of the chief men of the district. They are scat- 
tered all over Ceylon and in Southern India, and 
wherever you meet them you will find them shining 
for Christ. A great many of them are engaged in 
Christian work in their churches, Sabbath schools, 
day schools, and villages. In northern Ceylon 
alone forty Bible-readers are giving their lives to 
evangelistic work, and are teaching the women in a 
thousand homes. ‘These were nearly all trained by 
Miss Agnew. When we think how greatly God 
honored and used her, and how her life was a 
blessing in hundreds of homes, bringing to these 
homes the peace and the joy and the hope that the 


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A Great Opportunity. ikey 


gospel alone can give, we cannot help thinking 
how precious a life consecrated to Christ may 
be. Perhaps many from this audience may go 
out and do in China, in India, or in the Islands 
of the Sea, just such a work as Miss Agnew was 
privileged to do. * 

There may be some here who will say, “ I would 
like to go, but I am afraid that I am not good 
enough to go; I am afraid that I should not be 
successful if I should go.” Dear friends, what is 
the secret of success? Does it depend on having 
a high education or possessing great talents and 
superior linguistic ability? No. Christ has told us 
the secret of success? He has said, ‘“ He that 
abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth 
forth much fruit.”” That is the secret of success, — 
to abide in Jesus Christ, to draw all your grace and 
strength and power from Him. Separate from Him 
you may be only a poor, weak branch, with nothing 
of any value in yourself; but united with Jesus 
Christ you cannot fail, you must succeed. ‘ Christ 
Jesus ... . is made unto us wisdom and right- 
eousness and sanctification and redemption.” What 

* For fuller accounts of the work in Ceylon see ‘“‘Seven Years in 
Ceylon,” by Mary and Margaret W. Leitch. For sale by Publishing 


Department, U.S. C. E., 5o Bromfield Street, Boston. Price, 75 cents, 
postpaid. 


18 A Great Opportunity. 


you need is to be emptied of self that you may be 
filled with the fulness of Him who possesses all 
things. If you go out in His strength, you cannot 
fail; you must succeed. 


The Call. 
“(rap pe.” “Bo pe.” 


‘*For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall 
lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.”’ 


HERE comes the call from all over India and 

all over the heathen world for more laborers. 

Who are there in this great audience who will 
respond to that call? Dr. Scudder, of the Arcot 
Mission in India, writes: “ During my long experi- 
ence in India, I have never felt that the claims of 
India were so urgent as now. A restless, almost 
feverish, spirit of inquiry pervades the whole com- 
munity.” The Rev. Dr. Clough, of the Telugu 
Mission, has come to this country after fifteen 
years of labor, asking for twenty-five additional 
missionaries for that field. He reports that during 


20 A Great Opportunity. 


the last fifteen years that mission has enjoyed one 
uninterrupted revival and 40,000 converts have 
been added to the church fold in that one district 
in India alone. 

Bishop Thoburn, of the Methodist Episcopal 
Mission, writing to us a few weeks ago, said: ‘The 
condition of things in India is most hopeful. We, 
in our mission, could baptize a thousand persons a 
month if we only had a sufficient number of 
missionaries and native helpers to instruct those 
who are asking for baptism.” And he says further, 
‘“‘T hope to live to see the time when the people of 
India will come to Christ, not merely by the few 
thousand ina year, but by the hundred thousand 
a year.” I also hope to live to see that glorious 
time, and I mean to work for it, and I hope that 
you also will work to hasten its coming. 

Dr. Chamberlain, of the Arcot Mission, says: 
“Tf the people of India are to hear the gospel 
in this generation, in addition to all the native 
helpers who can be employed, it is necessary that 
there should be, in order to superintend and direct 
the work, one missionary for every 50,000 people.” 
Surely that is not an unreasonable number,— one 
missionary to every 50,000 of the population. Yet 
according to that estimate, nearly 5,000 addi- 


Wenner oale | 


tional missionaries are needed in India, and Dr. 
Chamberlain says that if the churches of Chris- 
tendom should send to them 5,000 additional mis- 
sionaries within five years, he believes that it would 
be possible to give the gospel to the people of India 
in this generation. If 5,000 additional missionaries 
are needed in India, then 5,000 additional missiona- 
ries are needed in China, and 5,000 in Africa, and 
5,000 in the remainder of the heathen world. Alto- 
gether, 20,000 additional missionaries are needed 
within five years, if the people of heathen lands are 
to hear the gospel in this generation. Dear friends, 
who is going to give the people of heathen lands 
the gospel? The people of the next generation 
cannot give the heathen of this generation the 
gospel. If the heathen of this generation are to 
hear the gospel, the Christians now living should 
give them the gospel in this generation. 

You have heard of the great Student Volunteer 
Movement for foreign missions, which has come into 
existence during the last few years. ‘There are at 
the present time in the United States 6,000 young 
men and women, graduates or undergraduates of 
the various schools and colleges and seminaries, 
who have signed the following pledge: “I am 


willing and desirous, God permitting me, to become 


22 A Great Opportunity. 


a foreign missionary.” These are 6,000 of the 
brightest young men and young women of the land, 
and the motto of this Student Volunteer Movement 
is: “The world for Christ in this generation.” My 
friends, I want to ring out that motto in your hear- 
ing today. I want to ask you, will you not take it 
as the motto of your Y. P. S. C. E., “ The world for 
Christ in this generation”? It can be done; it is 
entirely possible. Our Lord has said, ‘ Accord- 
ing to your faith be it unto you.” I want to 
inquire, What share is the Y. P. S. C. E. going 
to have in this great work? 

I have something to ask from you this after- 
noon. There has been a great burden on my 
heart ever since I was invited to come and address 
this meeting. I must give you a message that I 
believe God has given me to give to you. It is 
this: I want to ask for 16,000 missionaries from 
the Young People’s Societies of Christian Endeavor 
and the funds to support them. You have in this 
great organization 16,000 societies with a million 
members ; that is, on an average, more than sixty 
members for each society. Is it not possible for 
each society to send out one, one out of sixty, 
and to support that one on the foreign field? I 


would advise that these missionaries go out under 


wr lorcalles 23 


the denominational boards of these various societies. 
If a missionary is selected, let that missionary 
apply to the denominational board of your society, 
and let the money for his or her support go through 
that denominational board. For example, if a 
Y. P. S. C. E. is connected with a Congregational 
church, let the missionary who goes out to represent 
that society apply to be appointed by the Congre- 
gational board, and let the money for his or her 
support be paid through the Congregational board. 
In the same way, if your Y. P. S.C. E. is connected 
with a Presbyterian church or a Baptist church. 
What would be the result of this movement? 
Why, the result would be that the work of all the 
different missionary boards would be greatly aug- 
mented. What would be the result in heathen 
lands? A glorious revival in all heathen lands ; 
and I am sure one result would be the establishing 
very soon of 16,000 societies of Christian Endeavor 
in Africa, in China, and in all the round world. Do 
you want that your society should be international ? 
Make it so, then, in reality, not merely in name. 
Let India and China and Africa and the whole 
round world be full of societies of Christian 
Endeavor. And what would be the result here at 
home? I believe the result would be a great out- 


24 A Great Opportunity. 


pouring of God’s Spirit in your midst. You want a 
blessing, an abiding blessing? How are you going 
to get it? You have come up here, expecting to 
receive a blessing, and you want to carry back a 
blessing with you to your society. How are you 
going to get it? Christ has told us the way to 
secure a blessing. He has said, “ He that hath my 
commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that 
loveth me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of 
my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest 
myself to him.” Notice that the love of God and 
of Jesus Christ and the manifestation of Jesus 
Christ all hinges on the keeping of His command- 
ments; and if you want to get a blessing in your 
own hearts, in your homes, in your societies of 
Christian Endeavor, go to work with heart and soul 
and mind to keep the commandments of Jesus 
Christ, and do not forget that last and great com- 
mandment: ‘Go ye into all the world, and preach 
the gospel to every creature.” | 

Now I want to ask you, Have you a missionary 
committee in your Y. P.S. C. E.? If not, will you 
not establish one at the first meeting of your soci- 
ety? Have youa monthly prayer meeting in con- 
nection with the work in your society? If not, will 


you not arrange that the missionary committee shall 


‘¢ The Caill.’’ 26 


have charge of a monthly missionary prayer meet- 
ing, which shall be one of your regular meetings ; 
and that at that prayer meeting the work in 
foreign fields shall be systematically and earn- 
éstly studied ? * 

Have you in your community any Student Volun- 
teers? Have these ever given an address in your 
church? If not, will you not ask your pastor whether 
he will not arrange for a meeting at which the 
Student Volunteers of your vicinity may present 
the needs of the foreign field and the great work 
waiting to be done in heathen lands? 

The next thing I want to ask is, Will you not 
begin at once to pray the Lord of the harvest that 
He will send forth to the harvest one laborer from 
your society? Can you not spare one young man 
or one young woman out of the sixty members of 
the average society? Will you not begin to pray 
immediately that God Himself will choose and send 
forth that one to be your representative in the foreign 
field? And if it should be that God should choose 
the best one that you have, the one upon whom you 
chiefly rely, the most earnest Christian worker, the 


*For helps and suggestions see ‘“* The Volunteer Band,’’ by Robert 
E. Speer, procurable, together with others of the series of ‘‘ Volunteer 
Tracts,” and a classified list of Missionary Books, from W. J. Clark, 
97 Bible House, New York City. 


26 A Great Opportunity. 


most successful soul-winner, then I beseech of you, 
do not keep that one back; do not say, ‘‘ We cannot 
spare you; you are too valuable; let some one else 
go; we need you at home.” I pray you, give your 
best to Jesus Christ, remembering that God gave 
His best to you. There were a father and mother 
in the New England States who gave their only 
daughter to go as a missionary to China. At the 
good-bye meeting that father stood up and said to 
those present, “We love our daughter; she is very 
dear to us, but we have nothing too precious to give 
to the Lord Jesus Christ.” I wish that every one of 
us here could say that,—that we love Christ, and 
we have nothing too precious to give to Him. Our 
time, — He shall have it; our talents, —they shall 
be devoted to Him; our money, our influence, our 
friendships, our entire possessions, we do lay at 


His feet, we do consecrate to His service. 


TBe Need. Consecration. 


“Tf any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up 
his cross daz/y and follow me.” 


BELIEVE there must be many young people 

in this audience and in these societies who 
could go out at their own charges. What an honor, 
what a privilege, it would be for any young man to go 
out in connection with one of the missionary societies, 
but paying his own expenses! ‘Then I believe that 
there must be many in this audience who could, all 
by themselves, support a missionary in the foreign 
field. ‘There is a lady in Scotland, a teacher in one 
of the public schools, who receives a salary of 
$1,000 a year, and lives on $500, and the other 
$500 she gives to one of the missionary societies to 
support a missionary substitute in China. She has 
her own missionary in the foreign field. She would 


28 A Great Opportunity. 


like to go in person, but she cannot; so she sends 
a substitute. If you cannot go yourself, send one 
in your place; have your own representative in the 
foreign field. Are there not many here who receive 
$1,000 a year who could live on $500 and give the 
remainder to support a foreign missionary in the 
field? ‘Try it, and see whether God does not bless 
and reward you for the sacrifice. 

I would like to tell you of three sisters in Edin- 
burgh. They said, “ All cf us should not stay at 
home. One of us ought to go to the foreign field, 
and the two who stay at home will support her.” 
So one went as a missionary to Africa, and the two 
who remained at home said to the society under 
which their sister had been appointed that they 
would be responsible for her support. But a friend 
of theirs, hearing of this, said to them: “I know 
your circumstances. This will be a heavy task for 
you. Let me bear half of hersupport.”’ And those 
two sisters, one a teacher and the other a dress- 
maker, are working, and earning, and saving, and 
are paying, year bw year, half of the support of their 
sister who is in Africa. I think that in God’s sight 
the three are missionaries, not only the one on the 
foreign field, but the two who, sta ing at home, love 


the work as much as the missionary loves it, and 


The Need. 29 


make as much self-denial in giving as she makes in 
going. Is not that what God wants of each one of 
us, —that we should all be missionaries, whether we 
go or stay, that we should all love this work, and that 
those who are obliged to remain at home should 
make as much sacrifice in giving as the missionary 
makes in going? Who is under more obligation to 
give the gospel to the heathen than is every one of 
us? To whom does the commandment, “Go ye 
into all the world and preach the gospel to every 
creature,” apply more strongly than to us? 

As an illustration of what may be done if one is 
really inearnest, let me tell you of the giving of a 
poor woman, living in Lowell, Mass., and named 
Sarah Hosmer. She heard that a young man might 
be educated in the Nestorian Mission Seminary in 
Persia for fifty dollars. Working in a factory, she 
saved this amount and sent it to Persia; and a 
Christian young man was educated, and went out as 
a preacher of Christ to his own people. She thought 
she would like to doit again. She did it five times. 
Five times she earned and saved fifty dollars, and 
five young men were educated and went out to 
preach the Lord Jesus Christ in Nestoria. When 
more than sixty years of age, she desired to send 
out one more preacher of Christ, and, living in an 


30 A Great Opportunity. 


attic, she took in sewing until she had accomplished 
her cherished purpose ; and she thus sent out the 
sixth preacher of Christ in Nestoria. I think she 
was a missionary. I believe the Lord Jesus Christ 
will say to her one day, “Inasmuch as you did it 
unto one of the least of these in Nestoria, you did 
it unto me.” 

We are told of the poor native Christians on 
the Euphrates, that they conscientiously set apart 
one tenth of their entire income to the service 
of God in obedience to his commands; and that 
wherever there are ten Christian families, they 
are enabled, by means of these tithes, to provide 
for the support of a native evangelist who shall 
devote his whole time to Christian work. In view 
of such examples as these, I ask you the question, 
Would it not be possible for each Y. P. S.C. E. 
of sixty members to support one missionary in the 
foreign field ? 

I would not like to ask you to give to the 
foreign missionary cause something that would be 
easy for you to give, something that would cost 
you no sacrifice, I would not like to ask you to 
give as I once heard a lady ask at a drawing-room 
meeting, who said, “I am coming around soon 


with my subscription paper for the missionary 


The Need. 31 


| 
cause, and I want you each to give fifty cents 


or a dollar. You will never feel it.” I thought, 
Is that the way to give to the foreign missionary 
cause, —a thousand millions of heathen and 
Mohammedans needing the gospel, and _ these 
people are being asked to give something that they 
will “never feel”? Is that what God asks from 
us? Is that the way in which God gave to us, 
giving something that He did not feel? No; He 
opened heaven and poured out His treasures; He 
gave His only begotten Son; He gave the best He 
had to give. Our hearts are glad this afternoon 
because God loved us so. Shall we not give back 
to Him in a way to make His heart glad? Shall 
not fathers and mothers give their sons and daugh- 
ters for the foreign missionary work? Shall not 
young men and young women give themselves 
to Christ for this great work, if He shall call 
them? and shall not every one of us pour out 
our treasures and show the Lord Jesus that we 
love Him with our whole heart, soul, strength 
and mind? 

Is not that what Christ asks of each one of us? 
Does He not say to us, “Ye are not your own; ye 
are bought with a price”? If we do not even own 


ourselves, how can we own anything else besides? 


32 A Great Opportunity. 


If we have given to God the greater gifts of our 
hearts, how can we keep back from Him the lesser 
gift of our possessions? Between His heart and 
ours there should be no “mine” and “thine;”’ it 
should all be “thine.” 

Is not this what Christ means when He says, 
‘‘Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all 
that he hath, he cannot be my disciple”? Does he 
meanit? I used to think that He did not mean 
it, that He only said those words to the people of 
eighteen hundred years ago. But I think, in the 
presence of the opium traffic in China, in the 
presence of the slave trade in Africa, in the 
presence of the awful liquor traffic at home and 
abroad, in the presence of all the woes and sins 
and miseries that afflict humanity,—I think it is 
time that every Christian should be wholly con- 
secrated to Jesus Christ. I think it is time that 
we should give up all that we have to Him, to 
be at His disposal, to be used as He shall direct. 

I think Livingston understood this truth when, 
in the early history of his missionary career, he 
made this resolve: ‘I will place no value on 
anything I have or may possess, except in relation 
to the kingdom of Christ. If any thing I have 
will advance the interests of that kingdom, it 


The Need. 33 
shall be given or kept, as by keeping or giv- 
ing it I shall most promote the glory of Him to 
whom I owe all my hopes, both for time and for 
eternity. May grace be given me to adhere to 
this.” And on the last birthday but one of his 
eventful life, he wrote in his diary these words: 
“My Jesus, my Lord, my life, my all, I again 
dedicate my whole self to Thee.” Shall we say 
less than that, we, redeemed by the blood of Christ, 
we, called to be His disciples, shall we say less 
than that? ‘My Jesus, my Lord, my life, my all, 
I again dedicate my whole self to Thee,” and let us 
make our motto the words of that beautiful hymn 


which we so often sing : — 


“Take my life and let it be 
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee; 
Take my moments and my days, 
Let them flow in ceaseless praise. 


“Take my love; my Lord, I pour 
At thy feet its treasure-store ; 
Take myself, and I will be 
Ever, only, all for Thee.” 


Suggestions. 


“The Lord loveth a cheerful giver.”’ 


ODAY over one hundred churches and seventy- 
two colleges and seminaries, as well as many 
Young People’s Societies of Christian Endeavor are, 
in whole or in part, supporting their missionary in the 
foreign field. The amount required is secured by 
means of printed pledges, circulated among the mem- 
bers, which read as follows: “JZ promise to give so 
many dollars, or cents, each month, week, or quarter, 
during a period of five years from date, toward the 
support of a missionary in the foreign field, that sum 
to be over and above my present offering to foreign 
missions.” It is estimated that 135 persons giv- 


ing ten cents a week would support a missionary, 


Suggestions. 39 


providing for outfit, passage, salary and incidental 
expenses. 

There is a Young Woman’s Christian Associa- 
tion of fifty members in London, which is largely 
composed of servants and shop girls, whose average 
income is about ten dollars a month besides board 
and lodgings. These fifty young women have under- 
taken to be responsible for the support of a mis- 
sionary in China, each one pledging herself to give 
or collect for this object ten dollars a year. Those 
who cannot give this sum take a collecting card and 
collect it in small amounts, during the year, from 
their relatives and friends. They have thus not 
only raised $500 a year during the last two years, 
but they have also interested many outside friends, 
securing subscriptions from them in aid of the 
cause. Mr. Moody has said, “It is better to set 
ten men to work than to do ten men’s work.” 
These young women have not only raised $500 a 
year, but they have probably interested ten times 
their own number in the work abroad. 

They gray for their missionary substitute dy zame 
at each of their meetings. They write to her regularly 
and hear from her in return. They share in her 
joys and sorrows, in her discouragements and suc- 
cesses. The children in her schools, the women 


36 A Great Opportunity. 


whom she visits in the homes, the inquirers and 
the converts, are all living realities to them. This 
work in China is their work. 

Have you not in your society fifty members who 
earn on an average ten dollars a month? If so, 
can you not do as much as these girls and give 
or collect year by year an amount sufficient for 
the support of your own missionary substitute in 
the foreign field? 

After these girls in London had been giving in 
this way for two years they began to feel that they 
should do more than they were doing; that to give 
money was after all a small thing compared with 
giving life, and that one of their own number should 
go in person as a missionary. ‘They began to pray 
at all their meetings that God would lay it upon 
the heart of some one to offer herself for the work. 
God heard their prayer, and the daughter of their 
secretary, the most highly educated, the most tal- 
ented and devoted of their number, expressed her 
willingness to go, was accepted by a missionary 
society in England and is now laboring as a mis- 
sionary in India. What has been the result to that 
Y. W. C. A.? The result has been an outpouring 
of God’s Spirit in that society, and. a blessing in 
the hearts of the members such as they had never 


Suggestions. 37 


known before. The word of God is true, ‘There 
is that giveth but yet increaseth, and there is 
that withholdeth more than is meet but it tendeth 
to poverty.” 

The giving of native Christians in heathen lands 
may furnish an example of what may be done by 
those possessed of small resources but with hearts 
full of love to Christ. 

There are in North Ceylon 2,700 native Chris- 
tians, gathered into twenty-two native churches, the 
majority of which are entirely self-supporting. The 
native Christians not only support their own pastors 
and a number of resident workers as Evangelists 
and Bible Readers, and give to the support of the 
Bible Society, Tract Society, and to Christian edu- 
cational institutions, but they also support /Azrfeen 
native missionaries whom they send out of the 
peninsula to labor in the “Regions beyond.” In 
that country the majority of the people are poor, 
and money is scarce, the ordinary wage of a labor- 
ing man being ten (American) cents a day, on which 
sum a man is expected to supporta wife and family ; 
and yet the deep poverty of the native Christians in 
North Ceylon has, like some of old, ‘“‘abounded to 
the riches of their liberality.” 


38 A Great Opportunity. 


As a rule all the native Christians are accus- 
tomed to give one tenth of their entire income to the 
service of God. Those who receive a salary give 
one tenth of that amount. Those who are farmers 
give one tenth of the produce of their fields or 
gardens, and the firstling of the flock and of the 
herd. The Christian women daily set aside one 
handful of rice in aid of their foreign mission work, 
diminishing the amount of food which the family 
was accustomed to use day by day, by this quan- 
tity. At stated periods the church treasurer of each 
church visits each Christian family, collects the 
rice which has accumulated in this way, sells it and 
devotes the proceeds to the maintenance of their 
Foreign Missionary work. It is largely by means 
of this daly systematic giving that the native 
Christians of North Ceylon are able to support 
thirteen native missionaries and their work. 

If the members of your Y. P. S. C. E. should 
each resolve to consecrate at least one tenth of 
their entire income to the cause of Christ, would 
you not as a society be able, in addition to all the 
Christian work you may be doing at home, to sup- 
port your own missionary representative in some 
heathen land? 


Missionara Books. 


VERY Society of Christian Endeavor should have a 
Missionary Library for the use of its Missionary 
Committee. The following books would make a good 
foundation for such a library. We will send any of them 


postpaid on receipt of price. 


The Crisis of Missions, or, The Voice Out of the Cloud. 
BVEREV, no) LP IERSON,, D.D, ~Paper, 35 cents; 
cloth, $1.25. 


American Heroes on Mission Fields. Brief Missionary 
Biographies. Edited by R. H. C. Haypn, D.D. 
Cloth, $1.25. 


Seven Years in Ceylon. By Mary and MARGARET W. 
LEITCH. Boards, 75 cents. 


Morning Light in Many Lands. By Rev. DANIEL 
Marcu, D.D. Cloth, $2.00. 


Life and Letters of Joseph Hardy Neesima. By 
ARTHUR S. HARDY Cloth, gilt top, with portrait, 
$2.00. 


Lives of Robert and Mary Moffat. By their son, JOHN 
S. Moffat. Cloth, $1.75. 


James Hannington, His Life and Work. By E. C. 
Dawson, M.A. Cloth, $1.25. 


The Life of Adoniram Judson. By his son, EDWARD 
Jupson. Cloth, $1.50. 


Robert Morrison, the Pioneer of Chinese Missions. 
By WILLIAM J. TOWNSEND. Cloth, 75 cents. 


William Carey, the Father and Founder of Modern 
Missions. By JOHN BROWN Myers. Cloth, 75 
cents. 


The Life of Alexander Duff, D.D., LL.D. By GEo. 
SMITH, LL.D. Two volumes in one. Cloth, $2.00. 


Bishop Patteson, the Martyr of Melanesia. By JESSE 
PAGE. Cloth, 75 cents. 


John Williams, the Martyr Missionary of Polynesia. 
By Rev. JAMES J. Exuxis. Cloth, 75 cents. 


Among the Turks. By Cyrus HAMLIN. Cloth, $1.50. 


Our Country. By REv. JOSIAH STRONG, D.D. Cloth, 
60 cents. 


Service in the King’s Guards. By Two oF THEM. 
A home missionary story. Cloth, $1.50. 


Portfolio of Missionary Programmes. By S. L. MErR- 
SHON. Io cents. 


13 oi » 
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